Popular mapping services include Google® Maps, Yahoo!® Maps, Windows Live Search Maps®, MapQuest®, etc. for personal computers and computing devices, and Garmin®, Magellan®, TomTom® etc. as GPS-navigation units. Mapping services allow a user to view a map in various formats (e.g. 2D, 3D, aerial, road, etc.). Functionality provided includes “zoom in” and “zoom out”, which allows the user to see a smaller region at a greater level of detail, and larger region in less detail, respectively.
In a digital mapping system, objects on a map may be demarcated by symbols indicating points-of-interest (“POI”), way-points (“WP”), locations, etc. (collectively referred to inhere as map-objects, or (“MO”)) For example, the user may perform a search for a businesses and the search results may be displayed as symbols on a map, corresponding to the geographic location of the businesses in the result set of the search. In another common example, a user may request driving directions, in response to which way-points may be displayed on the map, corresponding to geographic points along the plotted route of the driving direction.
At present, one or more of the MOs to be displayed on the map may be outside an area of the map visible to the user (e.g. when the user zooms into an area of the map not including the MO.) The user often may not be able to discern the direction and distance to the MO which would be outside the visible area of the map, without (1) panning the map in the general direction of the MO until the visible area of the map includes the MO, and/or (2) zooming out until the visible area of the map includes the MO, and/or (3) in the case of a menu or a hyperlinked-list item referencing the MO, selecting the reference to the MO from the menu/the hyperlinked list item.